“Yes!”
“And why is that?” he asked, reaching over and turned on the satellite radio to Haley’s favorite stations, The Highway. Although she enjoyed pretty much every genre of music with a few exceptions, she seemed to really enjoy modern country music. Before they’d started dating, he would have cringed from just hearing the words, country music, but that had quickly changed after the first time she’d commandeered his radio.
“Because I hate you,” she said with a haughty little sniff that had him smiling.
So. Fucking. Cute.
He reached over and placed his hand on her thigh, loving the way that she shifted closer even as she continued to mope. As he drove down the busy highway he contemplated stopping for food to prolong the torture, but after a minute he decided against it. He couldn’t wait to see her face when she realized where he was taking her for their honeymoon.
It was going to be perfect, absolutely fucking perfect, he thought, knowing without a doubt that he was about to prove his family’s bullshit theory on honeymoons was just that, bullshit.
Chapter 5
“Let me go!”
“No,” Jason said, chuckling while he kept his arm wrapped tightly around her waist as she struggled to free herself.
“Please!” she begged, trying to shove his hands away so that she could make a run for it, but the large bastard that was supposed to love and adore her refused to let her go.
“After we check in,” he promised with a chuckle as he leaned down and kissed the top of her head.
With an over-the-top sigh, because she knew fighting him right now would be pointless, mostly because he’d stolen her wallet to keep her from running off, she gave up. “Fine,” she said with another heavy sigh as she walked back to the front desk where the attractive brunette who’d been eying Jason since they’d walked in was waiting to finish checking them in.
“I’m sorry about that,” Jason said with the same charming smile that he usually used on her to get her to make him pancakes late at night when all she wanted to do was curl up on the couch with him and watch mindless reality television.
“It’s no problem,” the brunette said, giving him a flirtatious smile as she typed away on her keyboard. “What was the name on the reservation?”
“Bradford,” Jason said, pulling out his wallet.
“Thank you,” the brunette murmured with an appreciative smile as she accepted Jason’s driver’s license.
“You’re welcome,” Jason said absently as he reached back and returned his wallet to his back pocket just as Haley decided to try her hand at pickpocketing.
Glancing around the large lobby to make sure that no one was watching, she shifted closer to Jason. When he smiled down at her, she returned the smile, making sure to look appropriately innocent. His smile turned into a slight frown as his eyes narrowed suspiciously on her.
“What’s-”
“Mr. Bradford, I have the king suite with whirlpool tub with the park view ready for you,” the brunette said with another smile that managed to drag Jason’s attention away from her attempts at thievery.
“No, I’m sorry. There seems to be a mistake. I reserved a room with a queen bed,” he explained as Haley shifted a little bit closer to him.
“Let me see what I can find out,” the brunette said, typing once again as Haley glanced around the lobby one more time to make sure that no one was watching. After one last glance to find Jason frowning at the desk clerk, she shifted closer and-
“Please tell me that you’re not seriously trying to pick my pocket,” Jason said, sighing heavily as he reached back and helped pull her hand free where it may have become stuck when she reached inside his pocket and tried to steal his wallet.
“No, of course not,” she said with a smile that she hoped was convincing, but judging by the way his lips twitched with amusement he probably wasn’t buying it.
“Sad, just sad,” he said with a chuckle as he leaned down and quickly brushed his lips against hers. “Be patient, my little grasshopper.”
“That’s easy for you to say,” she grumbled, knowing that she was pouting and not really caring, not when he was keeping her from a carnival lover’s dream come true.
“Your reservation was upgraded by your Grandmother last night,” the front desk clerk announced, drawing Jason’s attention away from Haley’s pickpocketing ways.
“What?” Jason asked, looking stunned.
“Typical,” Haley mumbled with a bemused shake of her head.
“Mrs. Blaine called last night and requested that your room be upgraded to a suite,” the clerk explained as Haley once again discretely reached over to-
“God, this is just getting sadder and sadder by the minute,” Jason said, sighing heavily as he took her hand into his and entwined their fingers before he returned his attention to the clerk. “How much is the suite?” he asked, reaching up with his free hand and rubbed the back of his neck as he waited for the blow.
“Four hundred and fifty-nine dollars a night for seven nights. That with taxes and room fees brings the total to just under thirty-five hundred dollars,” she announced with a polite smile as Jason made a choking noise that she’d made a time or two over the years thanks to her Grandmother.
“Thirty-five hundred dollars?” Jason repeated, looking a little ill.
“Yes,” came the answer with a blinding smile.
“Shit,” Jason whispered softly, so softly that she almost missed it, but she didn’t miss the way that he released her hand and reached back for his wallet or the fact that he pulled out his credit card, willing to put himself in debt to give her the perfect honeymoon.
“Is the room that my husband originally reserved still available?” Haley asked, deciding to ignore the stunned expression on the desk clerk’s face when she said husband since she was pretty sure that she’d be seeing that expression a lot and probably should get used to it.
“Haley, it’s fine,” Jason said, handing over the credit card to the woman, who appeared even more confused by the gesture than the fact that Jason had married someone like Haley.
“The suite is already paid for,” the desk clerk said with a bemused frown.
“By who?” Jason asked with a frown as Haley sighed, wondering when Grandma would learn.
“Mrs. Blaine paid for the room as well as provided a credit to cover room service and incidentals.”
“What are you talking about?” Jason asked, looking even more confused, which meant that when he’d called Grandma last night to give her a status report that he’d never expected Grandma to swoop in and take over.
Poor man….he’d learn.
“That woman is sneaky,” Haley muttered with a sigh as she gestured for Jason to put his credit card away, because she knew that her grandmother had found a way around her rules.
Again.
“I’m paying her back,” Jason bit out through clenched teeth, not sounding all that happy about this, which only made her love him more.
Most of the guys that she knew would have simply smiled as they put their wallet back, more than happy to have her Grandmother pay their way, but not Jason. Nope, definitely not Jason, she decided absently as she took in the furious expression on his face. She was also glad that Grandma wasn’t here at the moment, because she was pretty sure that cane of hers wouldn’t protect her from Jason.
“There’s a note on the reservation, Mr. Bradford. Mrs. Blaine said that this is her wedding gift to you and if either one of you so much as complains then she’s going to beat you senseless with her cane,” the desk clerk read aloud with a pleasant smile that had Jason sighing in defeat.
“Fine,” he said, not sounding particularly happy about it.
“There’s also a note here about your luggage,” she added, making them both frown.
“We don’t have any luggage,” Jason pointed out as he returned his credit card to his wallet.
“Your luggage was delivered to your room this morning compliments of Mrs. B
laine. I believe she had her assistant pack your bags and had them delivered shorty after your grandmother changed your reservations,” the clerk explained, placing two keycards on the counter in front of them. “Is there anything else that I can help you with?”
“No, we’re fine,” Jason said, looking a little lost as he picked up the keycards and shoved them in his pocket.
“Good,” Haley said with a firm nod as she gestured towards the front door. “Now we can move onto more important matters.”